No AFL plus MLB equals more WNBA viewing

It isn’t called the dog days of summer for nothing.

From the middle of May until around the third week of August, there is absolutely nothing for sports fans to watch on TV or attend.  For baseball fans, summers are great — for everyone else summers mean hot days and thunderstorms.

I’m not a baseball fan but I enjoyed Arena football.  The Arena Football League (AFL) began in 1987 and was played during the months following the Super Bowl and right up until the NFL’s training camp.  However, the league cancelled its season this year which really have me football starved and channel surfing.

So besides the few track and field meets that are shown throughout the summer, the only other option I have left is the WNBA — which actually isn’t a bad option at all.

I will be the first to admit that I am a fan of the WNBA — not quite an avid viewer but a fan.  This comes from following certain players — and on occassion teams — while they are on the collegiate level.  Those four years that Chamique Holdsclaw was at Tennessee were probably one of the greatest four years of any collegian basketball player has ever had.

Because of her career at Tennessee, Chamique Holdsclaw was named as one of the 25 greatest college players of the past 25 years in 2006. (Photo courtsey of espn.com/Associated Press)

Holdsclaw finished with 3,025 points, was tw0-time Player of the Year and won three national championships.  It was believed that she was the second coming of Cheryl Miller but Holdsclaw hasn’t quite panned out in the WNBA — going AWOL during her fourth season while playing with the Washington Mystics that resulted in a brief retirement.  This season, she is with the Atlanta Dream — her third team in nine years.

The WNBA boost players such as stalwarts like Lisa Leslie and Swin Cash and former Pistons ‘Bad Boy’ Bill Laimbeer who coached the Detroit Shock to three WNBA titles before retiring this season.  Great collegians like Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi has led their teams to titles and now four-time All American Courtney Paris (Sacramento Monarchs) and all-everything Candace Parker (Los Angeles Sparks) who is suppose to change the league like LeBron is for the NBA.

But the issue is that no one cares about the WNBA.  Teams have entered the league and folded just as fast as a poker player with a bad hand.  It’s sad when three-time champion Houston Comets had to pack their bags and roll out of the league.  The league — which is full of women — doesn’t even get any support from women.  How can the WNBA survive if it doesn’t get support from the one’s it caters too?

The gripe I hear is that it isn’t as good as the men.  Basketball is basketball no matter if it’s men or women playing.  Is a women’s photo finish race not as good as the men’s over the same distance?

It will be ashamed to see the WNBA go down the toliet.  It will be ashamed to see the best in women college basketball take their games overseas instead of staying home.  Show the ladies some love, watch the WNBA — they have now.

Why the critics are WRONG about “Revenge of the Fallen”

By no means am I a professional film critic (although I could be) so I do not know what criteria critics use or what they look for when they  critique  a movie but the reviews for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – if believed — would make you want to save your money for gas.

– Roger Ebert, rogerebert.com: “A horrible experience of unbearable length.” 1-star

– Katherine Brazzell, Memphis Movie Examiner: “Entertainment wise, it was great.  Film wise, it’s not Casablanca.”

– Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: “It’s tempting to dismiss Michael Bay’s long, loud and ludicrous sequal to 2007’s Transformers with one word — hunkajunk.”

– Rotten Tomatoes gave the movie a 21 percent rating.

At least one critic, Ray Bennett of the Hollywood Reporter, had a little more of a positive review.

Official movie poster for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

“The film is not likely to attract moviegoers who seek something more than a screen filled with kaleidoscopes of colored metal.”

However, I went to the Thursday matinee showing of Revenge of the Fallen and came away with the thought that the critics are dead wrong about the movie.  Here are a few explanations as to why.

Contrary to what was said, there is a plot to Revenge of the Fallen: The plot is that the Autobots and the humans are in a race to stop the Fallen from seeking his revenge on the humans — on earth.  Sam (Shia LaBeouf) and the others have to figure out clues from ancient mysteries much like Tom Hanks character in The Da Vinci Code.

Yes, Revenge of the Fallen is 147 minutes long: but what is the point?  Everyone seemed to have forgotten that the first film was 143 minutes long which isn’t much of a difference.

To make this short, it is simple age difference: of the critics to the pure fans of Transformers to which is why the reviews, um, sucked.

As a person who grew up on the original cartoon, I fully understood what Bay and his crew was doing while the older, non-fans may not have.  Bay increased the fight scenes between the robots because frankly — that’s what the cartoon was about.  Every episode climaxed with the Autobot and Decpticons fighting one another.  The fight scenes meant more action and less dead time during those 147 minutes.

Besides the Twins (Mudflap and Skids, which I can not explain), the robots were again excellent.  I understood Soundwave’s role, Ravage was done beautifully and Optimus Prime’s “twist” was reminiscient of the cartoon movie.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen may not be great (neither was the original) but it’s far from a ‘hunkajunk.’

Juneteenth: Our Independence

There are two weeks left until America celebrates its independence from England but today is the celebration of African Americans freedom from America.

On this day — June 19, 1865 — the final remaining slaves were emancipated in the United States, two years after then president Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation which declared the freedom of all slaves in any state of the Confederate States of America.Juneteenth originated in Galveston, Texas when after Union General Gordon Granger and his troops emancipated the slaves.  Upon this act from Granger, the former slaves celebrated in the streets and the celebrations continued every year after.

Juneteeth by Avery Clayton ©2005

Juneteenth is derived from a portmanteau of the words June and nineteenth.  And as of May of this year, 31 states — including D.C. — recognizes Juneteenth as either a state holiday or a state holiday observance.

States that recognize Emancipation Day are: Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut,  Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan,  Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wyoming.

Traditions of Juneteenth are barbecues and retracing ancestry with singing of such songs as ‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot’ and ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing.’